RT info:eu-repo/semantics/article T1 Exon-Intron Structure and Evolution of the Lipocalin Gene Family A1 Sánchez Romero, Diego A1 Ganfornina Álvarez, María Dolores A1 Gutiérrez, Gabriel A1 Marín, Antonio K1 Lipocainas K1 Calciproteinas AB The Lipocalins are an ancient protein family whose expression is currently confirmed in bacteria, protoctists, plants,arthropods, and chordates. The evolution of this protein family has been assessed previously using amino acid sequencephylogenies. In this report we use an independent set of characters derived from the gene structure (exon-intronarrangement) to infer a new lipocalin phylogeny. We also present the novel gene structure of three insect lipocalins. Theposition and phase of introns are well preserved among lipocalin clades when mapped onto a protein sequence alignment,suggesting the homologous nature of these introns. Because of this homology, we use the intron position and phase of 23lipocalin genes to reconstruct a phylogeny by maximum parsimony and distance methods. These phylogenies are verysimilar to the phylogenies derived from protein sequence. This result is confirmed by congruence analysis, anda consensus tree shows the commonalities between the two source trees. Interestingly, the intron arrangement phylogenyshows that metazoan lipocalins have more introns than other eukaryotic lipocalins, and that intron gains have occurred inthe C-termini of chordate lipocalins. We also analyze the relationship of intron arrangement and protein tertiary structure,as well as the relationship of lipocalins with members of the proposed structural superfamily of calycins. Our congruenceanalysis validates the gene structure data as a source of phylogenetic information and helps to further refine ourhypothesis on the evolutionary history of lipocalins. PB Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution SN 0737-4038 YR 2003 FD 2003 LK http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/6102 UL http://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/6102 LA eng NO Molecular Biology and Evolution, 2003, vol. 20, n. 5, p. 775-783 NO Innovación Educativa DS UVaDOC RD 11-jun-2024